Local Blogs

About this blog: I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in jo... (More)

About this blog: I am a perpetually hungry twenty-something journalist, born and raised in Menlo Park and currently working at the Palo Alto Weekly as education and youth staff writer. I graduated from USC with a major in Spanish and a minor in journalism. Though my first love is journalism, food is a close second. I am constantly on the lookout for new restaurants to try, building an ever-expanding "to eat" list. As a journalist, I'm always trolling news sources and social media websites with an eye for local food news, from restaurant openings and closings to emerging food trends. When I was a teenager growing up in Menlo Park, I always drove up to the city on weekends with the singular purpose of finding a better meal than I could at home. But in the past year or so, the Peninsula's food culture has been totally transformed, with many new restaurants opening and a continuous stream of San Francisco restaurants coming south to open Peninsula outposts. Don't navigate this food boom hungry and alone! Feed me your tips on new chefs and eats and together we'll share them with the broader community. (Hide)

Bianchini's partners with Instacart, adds same-day delivery

Uploaded: May 8, 2014

This just in: Fans of Portola Valley's Bianchini's Market will now be able to get those famous stuffed-to-the-gills sandwiches (with an Andes mint on the side, of course) and all groceries delivered to their homes  within one hour.

Family-owned Bianchini's, which also operates an outpost in San Carlos, has partnered with San Francisco-based same-day delivery service Instacart to deliver throughout the Peninsula.

Instacart will also further extend its delivery area to encompass Portola Valley, according to a press release.

Kevin Bianchini, owner of Bianchini's, said the company considered building its own delivery service at customers' requests, but decided to partner with Instacart instead.

"Building our own in-house service was certainly possible, but not easy, and might have been a distraction from our core competency, which is providing our customers with best selection of natural and organic foods," Bianchini said in a press release.

Instacart delivers from chains like Whole Foods and Safeway as well as smaller grocery stores in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC. It uses a crowdsourced model with screened and trained "personal shoppers" who use their own modes of transportation to shop and deliver groceries to customers.

Image courtesy of Instacart.

For most stores, delivery in under two hours costs $3.99. Delivery prices for each order are shown at checkout. Minimum order amount is $10. Instacart delivers from 9 a.m. to midnight every day (depending on store hours).

Users can add notes to their orders, such as requesting ripeness (green banana lovers, rejoice).

Instacart is available online at instacart.com and as a free app on iPhones and Androids.

Posting an item on Town Square is simple and requires no registration. Just complete this form and hit "submit" and your topic will appear online.
Please be respectful and truthful in your postings so Town Square will continue to be a thoughtful gathering place for sharing community information
and opinion. All postings are subject to our TERMS OF USE, and may be deleted if deemed inappropriate by our staff.

We prefer that you use your real name, but you may use any "member" name you wish.